Legal Options to Secure Community-Based Property Rights. Fernanda Almeida

Definition of the Rights Holders Procedures of Rights Allocation Bundle of Rights Resource Coverage Governance Structures Conservation Resource exploitation Framework of Analysis Customary Elements of Analysis Legislative Avenues

Substantive Dimension Respect of the principle of self-Identity. Avoid discriminating against particular groups by imposing requirements (e.g. of time or size). E.g. Guyana – 25 year of existence and at least 150 members. Recommendation: – Define broadly! Definition of the Rights Holders Procedural Dimension Does the law require communities to incorporate into a legal entity? Recommendation: – Automatic recognition; – Offer the option for communities to acquire status as a legal entity (e.g. contract with third parties)

Mapping procedural steps is fundamental to evaluating a community’s capacity to achieve legal implementation. Recommendations Automatically recognizes customary tenure rights and provides communities with the option to formally register their land if they wish to do so. Laws and policies should reflect communities’ realities and allow communities to adapt these procedures to their local conditions (e.g. oral statement, local language). The costs of legal compliance should be deflected as much as possible from the communities themselves. Procedure of Rights Allocation

Guiding principle – Land, in its entireness, is a core part of Indigenous Peoples and customary communities identity, spirituality, culture and history. – This relationship is protect by International Human Rights laws and jurisprudence. Nevertheless, most of the legal instruments analyzed include some form of restriction on the types of resources over which communities, in particular sub-soil rights (See Brazil and Peru). Recommendation – legislation should acknowledge their spiritual and cultural relationship to the land, including all its resources, a position that is also reflected in International Law. Resource Rights

Livelihood Rights - Access, Withdrawal, Management Rights Essential to ensure that local communities’ can fulfill their economic aspirations and maintain their traditional ways of life. In real life, there are several variations. Recommendation: Recognize all. Bundle of Rights Securing Formal Ownership – Rights to exclude, for unlimited period of time, due process. Legal regimes may be classify into different tenure categories. Essential rights to secure ownership. Recommendation: Recognize all, even the right to exclude.

The framework evaluates how formal governance structures imposed by the law contrast to those established by customs and the implications for affected communities. Recommendation - Laws should built on existing governance systems and be flexible enough to reflect their realities. Caution – Customary systems are complex; avoid clientage models. Including minorities in decision making structures – Laws can help, but they are not enough! Governance Structures

Legal provisions aimed at recognizing customary rights of Indigenous peoples and other customary communities - legitimate, in formal legal systems, the way of life and customary system of law of Indigenous Peoples and other customary communities. Legal provisions aimed at regulating the conservation of natural resources - regulate the rights to natural resources of Indigenous peoples and local communities in and around conservation units. Legal provisions aimed at regulating the use and exploitation of land and resources - this is a residual category Legislative Avenues

Tend to recognize a stronger set of rights. Rights are typically recognized for an unlimited period of time. State has fewer prerogatives to intervene in internal matters of the communities and therefore, traditional governance systems and natural resource management practices are less restricted. Momentum to approve this type of legislation happen only in few historical moments. The majority of these types of legal instruments were approved as result of broader reforms, such as constitutional reforms, democratization and peace processes. Customary

Communities generally face more restrictions to commercial use of natural resources and may have their traditional livelihood practices limited by stronger environmental restrictions. In contrast, communities may have a higher degree of protection against exploitation of sub-soil and other resources from third parties, as these activities are often restricted or even forbidden within protected areas. Legal provisions aimed at regulating the conservation of natural resources represents an opportunity to introduce redress mechanisms, such as legal possibilities to transfer back or compensate communities that were removed from protected areas in the past Conservation

Present several limitations: rights are limited, customary laws and practices are not always taken into account and the role of the state in governing land and resources is very strong. Temporary solution? Often established under less politically controversial contexts or even by lower ranked legislative instruments than laws. However, doing so may deviate support and postpone more comprehensive legal recognition under other types of legal provisions. Resource-exploitation

Definition of the Rights Holders Procedures of Rights Allocation Bundle of Rights Resource Coverage Governance Structures Conservation Focused Resource exploitation Focused Framework of Analysis Customary Focused Elements of Analysis Legislative Avenues

Thank you Fernanda Almeida